Sanctuary The future isn't what you thought
by summoner2100
Summary: Set two thousand years after the destruction of the Sanctuary. Magnus recounts her story to some children, including a surprise.


**This is pretty much the same story if you've read it already. Just updated with some "bug fixes" and suggestions.**

**Thanks to Arones for beta reading again. **

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A cold breeze blew through the window where Magnus stood, staring out into the darkness of the city night. The few lights that remained flickered back at her as she reached out to pull the window shut. As the lock snapped into place, Magnus caught a glimpse of herself in the reflection. A solid streak of white hair flowed down her right side, and heavy, dark circles sagged under eyes that had lived for so a long time, and had seen much. She pulled the curtains across the frame and closed her eyes to ignore the image. As the drapes came together, Magnus heard a gentle rustling in the background that snapped her back into the moment as she heard someone say, "Is that the end?"

Magnus turned to see three pairs of eyes looking up at her with determined interest, and she smiled back at them while she walked back to her chair.

"No, not the end." She told the young children who were sitting cross legged in front of her, looking up—with a steadfast gaze—wishing her to go on. Magnus reached a hand to the cup beside her. There was a bit of tea that sloshed gently towards her as she tilted the fragile china. Feeling underneath, she decided that the tea was cold and pushed it upright again as she turned back to the children.

"Now, where was I?" She asked, not really expecting anyone to answer, but just to return her memory back to the right place "Ahh, yes. The wars end."

Magnus leaned back in her chair as she thought about and continued her story. "In a way, I'm glad that William passed away some years before." She reminisced as a tear fell down her cheek. "Though, I do miss him, I'm happy it was something he didn't live through. For those of us who survived the final days…" She continued as the kids' gazes became ever more interested, "We would never be the same."

There was silence in the room for a moment while Magnus took a breath and remembered all of her fallen colleagues: Henry, Tesla, Bigfoot, even John. The thought of them brought more tears and they dripped slowly down her cheeks. Wiping her eyes with a tissue from table beside her, she looked back down at the children who were still engrossed in the story.

"Before the end of the war no-one knew what it would take for all world leaders to agree on something." Magnus told the children staring past them with hurt in her eyes as she remembered a painful memory. "As it turns out, that something was the abnormal population. To begin with, the abnormals were gaining ground. We even rallied human supporters to our cause. Yet, it didn't end there. The world leaders unleashed their main weapon against abnormals; a virus, stolen from the Cabal and engineered in secret to target only abnormal cells. What they started was an extermination." Magnus stated so abruptly that it made one of the children listening jump in his seat.

She softened her tone, leaning back in her chair once again. "We heard rumours of such a thing, of course, but no tangible proof had been discovered so we considered it a rumor—demoralizing the abnormal population—trying to make us surrender. The effect on the abnormals was almost immediate after release." The woman adjusted herself in the chair as she went on; the stiffness of her aged body causing her to wince as she moved. "The virus targeted any abnormal cell and destroyed it. It dissolved the cells to nothing. It was agonizingly painful—especially for half human abnormals—who couldn't survive without the abnormal half of their biology. Because they had managed to make it gaseous, it meant that no-where was safe. The virus spread like wildfire, killing all the pockets of abnormals that had spread across the globe—nothing survived—not even the smallest abnormals."

Magnus looked down at the children below her. "Now, I guess you're wondering why I wasn't affected?" She asked to a quick succession of nodding heads "Well, I was—at first I didn't notice—everything felt normal. You see, my abnormality was simple. Prolonged life. Healing and renewing energy. It healed me. The problem being it healed me by removing all the damaged cells, which were the abnormal cells. As of that moment, I was normal again—a human life with a mortal death. That was five years ago. As you can see, I've aged." Magnus added and held her hands out beside her as if inviting them to look at the hair that was now greyed.

She pulled her hands back to her lap. "So, that's it. That's why there are no more abnormals, because fear of something you don't understand can be a powerful thing." Magnus stopped for a moment as if she was thinking about something and then added, "Yet I firmly believe, that the abnormal gene will show itself again one day. Nature finds a way to exist, but I don't expect that it will be in my lifetime."

Magnus smiled uneasily and finished. "Well, that's it, children. Time to get ready for bed."

The three children stood up and started to walk towards the door as Magnus rested against the chair. They were almost out of the room before one of the children stopped and turned around. "Is that the end of the story?" He asked a puzzled look on his face as he glanced up.

Magnus smiled back at him and replied, "The story is never over. The story is the one we live every day."

The child gave a small nod as if understanding and the three of them walked out of the door. Magnus stood, stepped back over to the window and pushed the curtain aside just enough to see out. "Make yours a good one." She said quietly as she looked out upon the ruins of Old City. A rustling sound behind her made her turn, and Magnus saw a ripple in the air as the door opened by itself and then slid shut. Smiling, she turned back to stare out the window.


End file.
